SASSAS and the MAK Center presented a series of songs formed by stories written and composed by acclaimed Los Angeles-based visual artist Stephanie Taylor.

This premiere performance accompanied the publication of Taylor’s second book, The Stephanie Taylor Songbook: songs 2002-2007 (Ood Press). The Songbook was performed by Arlys Alford, Jessica Catron, Dealers Choice, Gordon Halligan, Alice Könitz, Simon Leung, Vince Meghrouni, Natalie Moran, Milena Muzquiz, Laura Steenberge, Stephanie Taylor, Matias Viegener and Sachiyo Yoshimoto.

The Stephanie Taylor Songbook 

The Stephanie Taylor Songbook consists of eight songs—ranging in genre from sea shanty to oriental soul—originally written between 2002 and 2007 to accompany her sculpture-based installations. Taylor utilizes a rhyme-based process to generate an elastic method of storytelling in which the traditional order of narrative elements is both acknowledged and upended. Each song technically tells a story, yet the stories are abstract, and barely sensical. The songs derive from the stories using a five-note system based on dominant vowel sounds present in the sentences, so that the language itself “writes” her tunes.